Letter to the Editor
The Editor,
The Meaford Independent, Your LOCAL News Source is on the top of the front page, every time I get the paper.
But, I wonder how many readers picked up on the fact that page 8, the Opinion page had our country’s NATIONAL problems put under the spotlight. Local infrastructure needs have been very well explained on this page many times, BUT these needs are nation-wide. Successive governments in Ottawa AND Queens Park have passed the national economic steering wheel to multinational corporations whose ONLY concern is PROFIT for their shareholders, NOT the needs of the Nation.
On page 9, Here & There, David McLaren, in a well-written letter, provides us with the solution to most of the problems itemized on page 8 that Canadians are facing nationwide.
Our elected governments have to start GOVERNING again in the PUBLIC interest. Certainly corporate Canada also has to be part of the equation, BUT things have gone so far that Canadian governments municipally, provincially, or, most of all, federally, are REACTING to corporate decisions, instead of setting the parameters in which they have to operate, the same as we as citizens have to follow the laws of the land. It is a clear case of the tail wagging the dog.
Case in point: Last month we were told by our municipality that styrofoam could no longer be recycled and had to go into the waste stream. WHY do not the two senior governments require manufacturers to provide a workable, environmentally safe way to dispose of their product once the useful life is over??
Case in point: Federal and Provincial government went to Ford Motor Co. in Windsor recently and gave Ford 200 million of OUR tax dollars for the development of a new V8 gasoline engine?? Is it possible that our politicians are stuck in a time warp, like the mid 1960s?? Japan has now more electric charging stations for electric vehicles than gasoline stations. We are told that Germany has equipped its autobahns with electric charging stations. Why are we not putting this money into a government initiative to promote infrastructure for E-vehicles like the GM Volt or the Nissan Leaf and others?? Will the new gas station in Meaford have an electric charging option?
We had a Common Sense Revolution in Ontario some 20 years ago, WHAT happened??
Just a thought.
Sincerely,
Karl Braeker, Meaford
